Collaboration with Leadership Toledo’s Signature Class
There’s no mistaking that a strong, effective nonprofit sector is vital to the Toledo community. These organizations serve and address critical issues facing our region’s most vulnerable populations – but large or small, well-established or in their first few years, they share in one thing: nonprofits are strapped for time and resources.
For more than 25 years, Leadership Toledo has been working to fill these gaps by adding capacity and providing expertise. This effort has resulted in the completion of over 200 projects for area nonprofits through our Community Impact Projects, all done pro-bono.
Leadership Toledo connects individuals with the community, engaging and involving them with initiatives that make the Toledo region a great place to live, work, and enjoy. Our mission is driven by the following goals for each of our adult and high school program participants:
Lead - Become a more confident leader
Connect - Become more connected to your community
Grow - Grow stronger in self-awareness
Serve - Identify service that is meaningful to you
Community Impact Projects are the perfect realization of this mission – giving talented leaders in our programs an opportunity to make an impact while empowering our region’s nonprofits to go even further in serving our community.
Participating Nonprofits Come Away With:
• Improved operations
• Increased exposure
• More strategic focus
• Connections with potential board members and strategic volunteers
Among our 2023 Signature Program Class, these teams contributed a combined total of over 800 hours of service and estimated $80,000 of value to partner organizations.
How Does It Work?
Your organization submits an application, and a selection committee determines if your project need is a good fit for a Signature Program team. If it is, you’ll pitch your project to the Signature Program class in October, where a group of 5-7 motivated, highly skilled professional might select to work with you. Not every project gets selected, but the closer you can get to a good fit, the greater a chance you’ll have!
Start Your Application (click here)
Application submission deadline is October 2, 2023 at 11:59 PM.
What Makes a Nonprofit a Good Fit for Selection?
Basic requirements that allow for a great partnership between one of our teams and your nonprofit include:
• Already having your 501(c)3 status (education institutions, government agencies, B-Corps and 501(c)6 are also eligible)
• The capacity to communicate and meet with the team regularly – working with them to make decisions quickly regarding the direction of their project
• Flexibility in your request and willingness to engage the creativity of the team
• The project needs to be realistic and able to be completed in the time frame of our programs (6-8 months from selection for project-based work)
• The project should produce sustainable results – allowing your organization to better serve the community
• Projects work best when they are strategic, structural, operational, or organizational in nature
• The more clearly your submission is written, the better teams can understand and be energized by your ideas and need
Review the full guidelines here
Have a project idea but need some clarity? We’re here to help.
Community Impact Projects come in all shapes and sizes. If you have an idea for your organization but are unsure if it would qualify as a Community Impact Project, please let us know. We would love to help you better understand this initiative and if we can be helpful to you and your mission.
Contact Arika Michaelis at arika@leadershiptoledo.org or (419)241-7371